Tech is a barn dance, and all the guys showed up first.  Right now there is a dance full of 90% guys, and the women are peaking in their heads and seeing a bunch of dudes having a pretty good time drinking and dancing.  I would say that:

• Nobody has locked the door
• They were invited
• They have the skills to dance
• The DJ (leadership) is begging them to come in
• The guys will have an alright time without them
• The dance is better if they come in

I hear horrible stories of sexism in other industries, but startups seems to be a very supportive ecosystem (I’ve yet to see a firsthand ‘that is horrible’ story or hear of many).  I’ve seen an amazing amount of support, but the numbers are still amazingly low.

I propose that it is time we all stop dancing for a minute, go outside and invite someone in.

It will be a better party if everyone did.

If you need some pointers on organizations that are doing a great job, check out Women 2.0 and BlogHer.  Three kick ass roll models would be Amber Case, Tara Hunt and Melanie Notkin (and many, many, many others).  Note your favorites in the comments.

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• Amazon reviews:  I read the reviews over any info provided by the company to make my decision, and won’t buy anything that isn’t 4/5 stars.
• iPhone Apps: I’m a late buyer to the app game, so get to see tons of reviews and traction in the store.  I don’t buy unless it has 4/5 stars and over 100 reviews.
• Restaurant Reviews / Yelp:  I’m sitting in a 4.5/5 star coffeeshop Trident (my favorite in the world).

How does this get interesting?  Speed.

That Yelp reference?

There are 33 reviews of Trident on Yelp.  More people are in here at this moment.  Imagine if that Yelp page was from today. Fantasy Football like stats with neighborhood restaurants.

Now imagine that all that data and reviews are not posting publicly?  As an example foursquare posts are active among my friends.  20 minutes after the checkins though, the thoughts or reviews are lost to the greater world.  “This place is rocking now” is a post in the economy that will cause short term change (more friends) but little on the long term.  The habits of the patrons will develop, but the actions from the specific post are not searchable, indexed or shared out of your network (and that is damn hard to control).

Once the habits of posting take grip with a mass amount of users, the data will be out there, it just is a matter of finding where.

Creates a Wild West feel for me.

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For Crowdsourcing to live, Spec Work must not be associated.

Just like for Small Business to live, Pyramid Schemes must not be associated.

Imagine brands being attacked with hundreds of posts for using crowdsourcing (proper, ethical crowdsourcing). The rage (yes, rage) isn’t intended for proper crowdsourcing. We will miss a huge opportunity for growth and innovation.

The posting economy is here, and will take over. Forums and pagerank will dominate. If Spec is associated, just throw everything else in the trash. It will get ugly. Today I saw my first ‘they use spec so they must be a nazi’ post. I’m outspoken, but just wow.

Spec Work will be the 10 year black eye of the crowdsourcing industry. The critics are watching now getting ready to peck at the clients. It will be the clients they go after.

I thought Spec Work was a problem of design, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

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I reached out to John Winsor and had coffee this morning (sitting out on the cold, sorry about that).  The direction they are going is much different that what I wrote before, but the language used in the launch of the site rubs me the wrong way.  What they are building at Victors and Spoils is a direct poke at agency life.  The $7,000,000 logo.  Small ad hoc teams can solve those problems at a fraction, and reputation and portfolio management can lead to a sustainable model.

I was wearing my favorite NAU jacket while we were meeting, a company John was an investor in that went out of business last year (and are now kinda back in business).  I miss NAU a ton.  The founders didn’t create a sustainable company for themselves, and the promise I saw is gone.

John, Victors and Spoils and I do not want to see the creative market go away at all.  I believe fully that the direction they are going, a sort of coop / freelancer agency is going to be good for everyone involved.  Rock on.

That isn’t evident looking at their site though.  “Why does this site looks so plain?  You were probably just thinking how much this site’s design shouts from the rooftops that it was crafted at the hands of the most talented people on planet earth. But it wasn’t. It is just an interim quickly.  Because we’re currently crowdsourcing our logo-creation.”

In this case they are crowdsourcing their logo to a spec work company.  I make the argument that spec is not crowdsourcing, because to work, the model has to be sustainable.  Spec is the bastardization of crowdsourcing, and gives it a bad name.  So as a start, I’m off to a bad taste in my mouth: the site make you to think spec work is crowdsourcing, and they are creating an agency from it.

Bits from my original post are as follows, more of a commentary of anyone working on a spec work company than Victor and Spoils.

Holy buzzword batman, lets talk about crowdsourcing!  It works (have you heard of wikipedia?!?!?) and I can make a fat profit from it.

Wait.  That sounds sleazy.  You had me until you just wanted others actions to make you filthy rich.

Yesterday someone pointed me to a Boulder startup “Victors and Spoils” which looks to be creating a spec work agency (since found out- not true) and should read something along the lines of “we are smarter than you, fuck off, ring ring cash money.”

It is crowdsourcing!  Wired loves it and it is the trend, right?  We could make millions!!!!

No. No. No. No.

Please do your homework.  Please.  For the love of hundreds of years of design process.  For the love of your neighbors.  For the love of your past and future clients.

Want to get in on the ground floor of the pyramid scheme of the design industry?  Help them design their logo!

Yes, complete a job for the chance of payment.  Doesn’t matter if you copy it from a book or employ child labor to do it, this is CROWDSOURCING!

But it is not.  Not even close.

Crowdsourcing only works when it is mutually beneficial.

Dating as an example- I can walk into a bar and yell “who wants to sleep with me?” and yes, it will work every blue moon.  I would look like an idiot though, a sleazy dirtbag that can’t think about how my actions effect others and are part of a community.

A community.

Spec, as I have seen it, is employed by people that want to live in the gated house on the hill.  Life in luxury at the expense or ignoring of everyone else.  “Evolve or die” they say ignoring the trail of broken promises their industry is famous for creating.

Evolve or die is the basic arguments of the company they used to (op in slave?) labor their logo.

The same company that in under a year has caused over 41 years of designers time to go unpaid.

The same company that has kids doing logo projects.

The same company that profits off of every single ‘contest.’

Funny they call it a contest, everyone seems to lose that enters. Spec is to design is to business is to pyramid schemes.  A nice ring to it, you founded a company that is the pyramid scheme of design.  Mom would be so proud that you are screwing over thousands to make a buck.

So a long digression.  Victors and Spoils now has set the bar at $2400 for their logo.

How much are they going to charge for their next one?  Ground floor of a pyramid scheme and they maxed out at $2400.  This is not sustainable.

All they got was this negative post.  I would much rather post something positive.  About a company pushing forward crowdsourcing.  Something that when I first heard about this company, with backing of John Winsor, who I have looked up to for years, wanted to write (and will now that I know what they are up to).

After talking with John, what they are building is not spec at all.  They are looking to work with the brightest minds on killer projects.  But they started out with a spec work project.

Spec is their biggest enemy.  It threatens to black eye the entire industry.  Imagine every brand they work with has an army of people who care about the industry with vigor and the bite of rage you have just read, worked against them.

A message to the entire spec work profiteers: Ball is in your court.  Evolve or die.

My advice to Victors and Spoils?  Run as far and as fast as you can from the spec work company you have associated with, the black eye will take years to heal.  The reputation, promise and energy of what you are building depends on it.

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When pricing a product, there is much talk about what people would pay.  Comparisons to a cup of coffee are common (buy this product! free if you just don’t get coffee for one week).  Being someone that loves my coffee (rip it from my dead hand) I view these arguments as lame.  Instead, lets base these product prices on ACDI.

Say your average customer makes $50k a year.  Their ACDI is ~$100 after tax.  Each day, to stay debt free, they have to figure out how to spend less than $100.  I look at markets in general and see pricing based on this, perhaps by accident.  Consumers don’t want to spend more than their ACDI on a product or service.  If we all looked at the % of ACDI as part of how we qualify our costs, we would do much better.

What I didn’t state above is the ACDI is before hard expenses like rent, food and phone.  This brings their ability to save down, but I think the American consumer is priced into spending their ACDI when they are in consumer mode.  As an example, a ticket to Disneyland is $50 a day (for a 3 day pass).  Match in a hotel and you are looking at ~$100 in vacation costs per day (plus food and ‘non essentials’ that are splurges above ACDI for vacations).  We can go back to assuming the ACDI of a park attendee is $50k a year.  Most likely a lot more when you mix in food and travel, but that sounds about right.

Pricing web applications hopefully just changed a bit in your mind.  $25 a year for flickr can be sold as a steal at .25% of one day with the ACDI of 50k.  $10 per month breaks down to 10% ACDI.  Horribly ballpark, but knowing your customer and pricing to their ACDI.  If your ACDI is $300, pricing of $100 shouldn’t flat out turn people away.  Customers infers that this doesn’t look at your comp and student accounts.

The trick for saving money is knowing how and when to spend it.  What if your customers had more ACDI because they knew that the new truck they just got was a whopping $17 a day?  Your $25 app is a much easier sale if your customer has the problem of too much money.

The problem of too much money isn’t a problem of many.  It can be an occurrence, not a problem.  Startups solve problems, and sustainability of communities trusts that these solutions don’t drive your base into spiraling debt.

Some thoughts on pricing, your thoughts? What if charities marketed to ACDI instead of cups of coffee? I think I for one would give more.

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The Swell Season is in town in a few weeks. I wanted to see if tickets had gone on sale, so I searched “Denver Swell Season.” A local result popped up (with a map, top of everyone else results) and I thought “wow, the venues are getting it.” Single events are hard.

Wrong. Clicked through, and a scalper owns that result, not the venue. Sleazy to me. Tickets In Town is the offending site.

Pretty sure this isn’t how local search was designed.

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I have a thought of doing this in a completely open and honest way.  Short updates, phone calls, strategy, team and problems would be posted for others to see, learn from and participate in.  I’ve learned a ton watching the startups grow out of TechStars, and find the project I have in mind would be both interesting to the community and would benefit from having the involvement (is the direction where we should actually go?).

Starting a startup can be like trying to summit a mountain covered in clouds.  You’re going up with a general idea of what to be prepared for.  You are approaching a storm, and although you think you are going to have a good time, do not know.  There is an adventure ahead, and you can prepare for what you know, accept what you don’t know and mentally prepare that whatever happens, however tough, isolating or amazing it is, will be part of the journey.

I’m feeling like taking you along for the ride.

The site name, design and iteration is nearing completion.  Our launch would be December or January right now.  This would be a three or four month project of transparency.

The question is, if this happens, would you get anything from it?  Is this a journey you want to see up close and personal?  From raising funding to the design process, it will all be open.

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From a comment on the TechCrunch post Don says:

The support from the tech community has been overwhelming. I had no idea. I truly appreciate it.

There have been lots of offers and requests to talk from the biggest names in the business. All the usual suspects. And lots of interesting startups are reaching out. I hope to take some time to evaluate where I can add the most value.

Here are my guesses on what is next:

Microsoft

Someone has to have seen the massive community outpouring of support and thought to themselves, ‘you know, we might have gotten the wrong guy.’   A rehire with a bonus of a few staff with him.

Google

Nothing makes a googler happier that a employee or toy that their competition can’t have.  Google needs a Don type to work with startups.  They have a Boston office.

FaceBook

Total shot in the dark, they are not in Boston, nor really need Don.  I think this would be a great fit from the outside.

Random Will Be Big Startup

Don has a history of helping startups become big, so look out for a company either raising a round because of Don or starting a sprint.

Government

Can’t wait to think about government agency working with a guy so plugged into the startup scene.

TechCrunch

Biggest tech blog in which Don is already a writer.  Would love to see him write more!

Your thoughts?

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This is exciting news. Everlater is one of my favorite startups out there, answering the question: how do you share your travel experiences? I spent 20 minutes setting up my current trip today, it is here. I have a url to share with friends, family and search traffic (those looking to go to Vegas can see others that have taken trips there). Pretty cool. I love the team at Highway 12, congrats to the entire team! Test it out!  http://www.everlater.com

Everlater is a 2009 TechStars team.  They were featured in the video series, The Founders.

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A few weeks ago I got back from a run with horrible, horrible pain on the outside edge of my foot.  I thought I broke it, xrays proved me wrong.  I had a stress fracture or something else making walking a chore.  I had just done a half ironman and was picking up the training for the NYC Marathon.  Pain.  Horrible, horrible pain.

Damn.  Looks like I will have to wait for next year.  I took almost a month off and then last week started to do some pool workouts.  Amazingly, I felt great and didn’t really feel my lungs had left me.  My foot felt tight, but massage and stretching everyday was proving to almost fix the problem.

Game on.

I’ve been on a whirlwind tour of the world, jet lagged, tired and overall a little cranky.  I got to New York via Singapore, Tokyo, LA, and New Orleans.  Not ideal training, and not ideal prep.

Alright, sounds perfect so far, right?

One thing I have learned about myself this year is that I can dig deep and accomplish things with a smile on my face.  Yesterday was no different.  I dug into the reserves and finished my first marathon. It was a blast.  Until mile 18 or so.  Then it was one of the most painful experiences of my life.  There is a saying in distance running that you should ‘make friends with pain and you will never be alone again.’

But before that, oh yeah, this is what running is all about.  I started running when I was cut from the high school soccer team.  Those that were picked ahead of my were soon expelled from the team for drinking on the bus after the game.  I was devastated.  It was a chance to play with my brother, who was a Senior on the team.  I joined the cross country team which was the best decision of my high school career.  Great friends, grounding, and so much fun.

Alright, the race.  26.2 miles, which is a 10/10/10 race.  10 miles, 10 miles, 10 k.  All take the same mental energy.  I’ve never been in a race with 43,000 people.  The images are just insane.  Crossing bridges, going through the streets.  Just amazing and epic.  We ran in all five burrows of NYC.  Here is me at mile 17, right before pushing it for two miles and then hurting pretty bad for the rest of the race (read: I was an idiot).

Pre race: got to Staten Island 3 hours early.  Froze my ass off for 3 hours.  Started in a line that went past the portajohns.

Mile 1-5: felt great.  Talked to quite a few folks.

Mile 6-10: met up with Steve from Castle Rock, CO.  Ran with him until Mile 17, telling bad jokes the whole way.

Mile 10-15: halfway there!  whoohoooo!  Thought there would be some food on the course, but didn’t see any.  Ate a Clif Bar energy gel I found on a bridge.  Hey, never be too proud.

Mile 16-20: holy First Avenue!  I expected more of a thunder, but the whole thing was filled with fans and runners.  Quite an experience.

Mile 21-26.2: bonk!  Ouch!  Every step hurt my feet.  Really struggled, but made it.  Central Park was TOUGH!

Post race: There was a funnel that all finishers had to stand in to get out, about 300 yards long, and nobody was moving.  People were passing out, medics couldn’t get to them, people were yelling, trying to get a place to sit and stretch.  Horrific planning.  I can’t say how bad it was, almost ruined the whole experience.  People were getting in fights with volunteers.  I wish I could just wipe it from my memory.

I finished.  Got to the subway back to where I was crashing and ate a great, great meal.  I did it.  The 26.2 was on the list of accomplishments.  Time to celebrate!

Thank you to my brother and sister who went on a run with me last Christmas in New Orleans that sparked the idea of a marathon, Rich for getting me out running with him- those snowy midnight runs were in my mind on mile 20, Brad for showing me that even big guys can run the 26.2, Ingrid for showing me the nuances of why getting on your bike and working out can be social and fun, Jeff for all the tips and the bib for the race and all those that sent encouragement.  Thanks to Daily Mile for making me want to track my workouts.

Screw pain, friends will never make you feel alone.

The night of the Marathon I went out for drinks with three friends I have known since I was just seven. Here is myself Mike Kurtz, Chelsea Estep-Armstrong and Chris Mintiens.

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